7 comments:

We have a similar issue in North London, a 12 month removal of a route because of congestion could actually have been dealt with a lot better, it is really impacting upon thousands of people's travel needs.

There's a large bus depot in Catford, so this might be one explanation for the route's change of destination.

The Catford Gyratory and the sick joke that runs through—a little-known minor road known as the South Circular—is a major cause of congestion, certainly, but this is hardly Lewisham Borough Council's fault. They've been banging on about sorting this junction out since at least as far back as the 1970s. Unfortunately, the money to do so has yet to appear. (They did get very close at one stage, but that window was slammed shut by the creation of the GLA.

In fairness, the chronic congestion in Catford is entirely out of Lewisham Borough Council's hands: the two major roads that intersect at this point are the A21 (prop. TfL) and the pitiful A206 "South Circular" (prop. TfL).

Lewisham have been trying to get the A206 realigned for decades now. They came within a hair's breadth of achieving it at one stage too, even going so far as to buy up an entire street's worth of housing for the necessary road widening, but the money simply never materialised.

One advantage of the 320's extension is the relief of the 208 route's stretch between Catford and Bromley. The 208 sees a hell of a lot of passengers. Another could be to open up more journey options to destinations beyond Bromley as most existing routes tend to terminate there.

The 320's run by Metrobus from Orpington, so it's nothing to do with Catford bus garage (which is run by Stagecoach).

It's actually a common issue across London - routes are often too long and get cut back at the vital bit the route was originally meant to serve. A similar situation happens with the 486, which gets snarled up in Bexleyheath so turns around at Charlton, missing the vital stretch up to North Greenwich.

Of course, Biggin Hill could always secede from Greater London, return to Kent, lose all buses after 7pm, and then Boris would lose their votes ;-)

Weird that some pro-Johnson comments are not being published. Adam, stop trying to control the view of the general public.

Many people whom I have spoken with recognise the fact that Johnson minor has to act in demand of his constituents, not his brother. In my eyes, his constituency come first - and I am very glad that he has decided to support this case.